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New Zealand's 11 wine regions are growing in popularity; wine is now the country's sixth-largest export. That's largely due to an explosion of styles beyond its well-recognized sauvignon blanc at some fantastic wineries.

We conducted a blind tasting of 16 of the best available boxed wine (8 white, 8 red). A few tasted like our worst box wine memories of yore: fermented juice boxes gone bad. But another few hinted at that 92-point bottle we keep stowed away in the cellar.

I come from a family of beer drinkers, firmly rooted in the blue-collar heritage of my grandfather’s construction and carpentry business. My father likes to say that it was his own skill at unskilled labor that paid his way through college. He whole-heartedly embraced the craft beer movement. My brothers share his taste for the malt, but my passion has been for wine.

Rosé season is upon us, and while we generally advocate for consumption of pink wine year round, the same warm weather that begs for draping oneself in white linen and opening too many shirt buttons demands the freshness of a crisp, vibrant rosé. Here are our ten favorites.

Mulled wine is the perfect drink for the holiday season: just pleasant and alcoholic enough to warm everyone up, but not like handing out rounds of high-octane Manhattans that could turn Thanksgiving dinner into an episode worthy of Jenny Jones. We tapped the expertise of Jane Elkins, former and current barkeep at some of New York City's best cocktail haunts, for three variations of mulled wine, each rooted in tradition and brushed up with ingenuity from behind her bar.

If you produce videos like this one, our inclination is going to be to like you. We had hopes for their 2012 Underwood Pinot Noir ($12). Mind you, they were bro hopes, bare of the usual pretension that comes with a wine tasting.

You know the pinnacle of wine-making remains in France. Well, so do all those newly minted Chinese millionaires, and they’ve driven the price of Old World red wines sky high. This is especially true for top-end Bordeaux, which carry the highest cache among French wines. Those of us without a state-sponsored fortune, trust fund, or impending Wall Street bonus, however, have to look elsewhere for quality wine. Here are two splurge-caliber choices, made in the same style, of the same grape -- merlot -- though one comes without the inflation of appellation.

Victor Schoenfeld has been the Head Winemaker at Golan Heights Winery since 1992, where he’s spent time studying and understanding the terroir of northern Israel, building a groundbreaking vine propagation facility, and ultimately making wine that’s considered some of the best in Israel and in the world. Not bad for a guy who dropped out of high school. He told us all about that and more when we met him at the winery for their 30th anniversary celebration.

The Mixologist’s gotten you into plenty of blissful adventures, most of which ended without real long term damage to your record or your marriage. He’s a passionate guy, and he knows his craft: beer, that is. Malts, mash, wheat, barley, rye, and oh yes, sweet sweet delicious hops — he sucks them all down, grinning...

The truth is, we’ve never sipped an ounce of champagne from this silencer-inspired bottle of Bollinger 002 for 007 Limited Edition Champagne (~$160), which opens only when the code “007” is entered into the gimmicky combination lock. But we have been fortunate enough to taste this particular vintage of Bollinger La Grande Année 2002 once...

White Mule Farms had us hooked at “wine with a kick.” Spodee ($9+) combines prohibition history — one of our favorite eras — with a witch’s brew of flavors that does pretty well to defy genre and description. Its makers call it depression era hooch, but even they admit it’s a drink shrouded in secrecy;...

Leave it to the French to create a better way to schlep wine from chateau to chateau. Wrapped-up in its hexagon tote form, the Zebag can hold and insulate six bottles securely. When not on the move, the carrier can unroll into “bar mode”, functioning as an 11 bottle rack, or simply hang in a...

In case you’re looking for an excuse to own yet another electric screwdriver look no further than the Bosch IXO Vino Cordless Lithium-Ion Screwdriver ($60). The driver includes an exclusive corkscrew attachment to make bottle popping a snap and even ships with a wooden box to fit in with the barback crowd. Of course, that...

Distinctive in every sense of the word, this Wine Bottle Chandelier from Pottery Barn ($399) is a creative fixture any wine lover can appreciate. Weighing 30 pounds and measuring 18″ in diameter, 33″ high, with a 6 foot chain for hanging, this chandelier is a manageable dining room table friendly size that won’t give those...

Today’s wine accessory pick joins our ongoing list of wine gear by being both incredibly affordable and particularly space conscious. Made from solid wood and coated in a Mahogany finish, this slim mini wine tower measures Overall: 9½”(W) x 9½”(D) x 28″(H) and has a max capacity of 12 bottle. A great choice for apartment...

If you keep more than two or three bottles of wine at home it’s time for a wine rack. If you’re like me then you probably prefer keeping them out of sight than some cheesy pompous wine rack that does nothing but show you’re more interested in displaying bottles than knowing what they taste like....